Optimum Edge Angle

J

Jeff Hubbard

Joined
Jan 22, 1999
Messages
331
What is your favorite edge angle?
20 degrees included (10 per side), 30 degrees included (15 per side) etc...
I personally like a thin edge on all of mine, including camp/utility (except for M9 bayonets), IE. 20-25 degree included.
What is your favorite?

Jeff
 
As low as possible without requiring me to do more maintance than I care for. Depends on the steel and the tasks the knife is going to be used for. Ideally I'd like a full flat grind with no secondary bevel at all. But of course that is rather frail for most tasks. I would be curious about Talonite in this regard.

-Cliff
 
Cliff; what are you talking about? Do you mean a grind that goes right from the spine of the blade to the edge? Without another bevel just above the edge, which is what you sharpen?

If that is what you mean, I cannot imagine why you would want that. You would have to remove metal from the entire blade to sharpen the edge. That would be a very difficult thing to do. Please clarify. Walt
 
That's exactly it. You are correct in that you do have to remove a fair amount of metal in order to sharpen it. And it gets worse as you obviously are quickly grinding the knife away to nothing. You have a lifetime of a few years max. However there are two benefits. The first is that its trivial to maintain the correct angle while sharpening. And second its the sharpest knife that you will ever see.

-Cliff
 
(one of my lasts posts before I'm off to Vegas)

Optimum angle depends on the steel, the blade, and what you're using it for. My general principle is this:

Keep the edge as thin as you can, until the point where it just chips or rolls or otherwise gets damaged during your hardest use. Then raise the edge a hair, and that's the perfect angle.

For my ATS-34 folders, I'll go as low as 18-degrees. But often I'll just use whatever the Sharpmaker angle is.

Joe
jat@cup.hp.com



[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 04 February 1999).]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top